


Ships in the Night

by AXEe



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Gen, Random & Short, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:47:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27188851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AXEe/pseuds/AXEe
Summary: Some introspective Doctor/Rose reunion fluff.   Enjoy :=)
Relationships: The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler, Thirteenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Ships in the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Some introspective Doctor/Rose reunion fluff. Enjoy :=)

******

Rose was about thirteen when she first started noticing it.

Certain men watching her. It was different from the other boys around the estate and in school, it wasn’t _leering_ , but comforting in a way. There was Mr. Smith, her science teacher who would give her a long, sad smile whenever she got an answer right. She didn’t even _like_ science, but there was something about this fellow with his floppy hair and bowties and suspenders.

A few years later, after kicking Jimmy Stone to the curb, she saw another man watching her. He was skinny, dressed in a blue suit—sometimes with a long brown coat—and great hair, and sad eyes. She saw him another time, on New Year’s Eve, at least she thought it was him, it was hard to tell in the dark, but she vividly recalled him saying that 2005 would be a ‘really great year’.

At first, his prediction had been wrong, 2005 was just like 2004 at first, aside from another odd man. He was older, silver-haired with a hawkish gaze, dressed all in black, sometimes she’d see him with a guitar slung over his shoulder and a pair of sunglasses perched on his face. He would glower at people who tried to talk to him, but whenever he saw her, it was that same sad look as Mr. Smith and the other man.

Later of course, she’d learn just who the bloke with blue suit and great hair was.

After the events of Canary Wharf and Bad Wolf Bay, once she’d become a permeant resident of Pete’s World, she started looking for strangers who took more than a passing interest, hoping and wishing that she’d see him, see The Doctor again, having guessed that Mr. Smith and the old rocker were probably different faces of his.

For a year she looked, and saw no one out of the ordinary, not counting her that is.

It was by her third or fourth year that she noticed that she wasn’t aging, at least not in any significant way. Everyone else around her, her Mum, Pete, her baby brother Tony, all of them were visibly getting older, and yet she remained the same as she was when she last saw The Doctor on that damned beach. After five years, she stopped looking, too concerned with solving her own mysterious lack of aging.

With her help Torchwood had invested significant time and effort into traveling between universes, but she had no interest in going along with it.

By ten years, she was definitely no longer aging, even as Jackie began to use a cane to get around, and Pete went completely bald, and Tony got taller, but it was then that she started seeing her.

A woman, a few years older than her (or, rather, a few years older than she appeared to be), dressed in a long blue coat. At first, Rose ignored it, too wrapped up in family affairs as Jackie and Pete started to feel the effects of age, but as time went one, she began to notice the woman out of the corner of her eye.

She’d see her by the little coffee shop nearby work, once at the airship dock, another time at the library. She never approached Rose, in fact the few times that Rose openly looked back the woman would quickly jump back and hide (rather ineffectively) behind something or someone.

It wasn’t until thirty years later, after Jackie and Pete had both quietly passed in their sleep a month apart from one another and Tony celebrated his second wedding anniversary that Rose had finally confronted the mysterious woman, chasing after her in the library, herding her down the stacks she now knew so well to a dead end.

“Dead end,” the woman scowled “I _hate_ dead ends, they’re no fun”

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Rose panted out, leaning heavily against a shelf. She may have been ageless but she was also out of shape.

“Me?” the woman asked “who am I supposed to be?”

“The Doctor” Rose accused.

The woman smirked, a sad smirk.

“Figures you’d recognize me,” she finally muttered “even with the new face”

“All those other blokes, you were watching me” Rose guessed.

“Right again,” The Doctor shrugged “clever girl, as always”

By this point, Rose had softly approached, now close enough to touch.

“What’s happened?” she asked.

“Oh, lots of things,” The Doctor shrugged “mainly, I’ve just been…missing…you” she gave another smile, a bit more hopeful this time.

“Well, I’m here” Rose replied with a shrug.

“Yeah,” The Doctor seemed to brighten at this notion “guess you are,” she stuffed her hands into her coat pockets, rocking back and forth on her heels “guess you are” she repeated.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Rose continued “unless, of course, you want me to” she hinted.

“Yeah?” The Doctor asked a hopeful gleam in her eyes.

“Yeah” Rose nodded.

Face breaking out into a full-blown grin, The Doctor eagerly took her head, tugging her hand down the stacks.

Laughing, Rose allowed herself to be tugged along, her happy laughter soon disappearing behind the familiar grinding-wheeze of the TARDIS…

**END**

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you thought :=)


End file.
